Inside LookIN 2013, WHEN AHIMA began to pro-mote the concept of information gov-ernance (IG) in healthcare, it was afairly new concept for most organiza-tions. Over the past few years, how-ever, we’ve seen AHIMA’s IG conceptsand strategies take hold, gain traction,and become successful, often resultingin increased patient safety or a recog-nizable return on investment. The in-creased need for governance over thecreation, management, access, use,storage, security, sharing, retention,and, eventually, destruction of informa-tion from these systems is not the onlyreason for implementation, but it is cer-tainly advancing the urgency aroundcreation of an IG program.

These IG success stories from the
field have been documented in our IG
Case Studies, published in the Journal
of AHIMA “Road to Governance” column over the past year (and available in
the AHIMA HIM Body of Knowledge at
http://bok.ahima.org). Each case study
tells a story of how a different organization used AHIMA’s Information Governance Adoption Model and/or AHIMA’s IGHealthRateTM and the benefits
it reaped.

In addition to these successes, AHIMA recently published the 2017 IG
survey white paper detailing results
from a nationwide survey that assessed adoption of IG principles and
practices in the industry. The survey,
which took place in July and August
2017, received more than 1,500 responses from clinical and non-clinical
leaders in management and staff positions in both provider and non-pro-vider settings. The results found that
we are making good progress: there is
increasing recognition of IG in healthcare. But we can do better in implementing it.

Through the implementation of IG,
healthcare organizations are maximizing the value of their information while
minimizing associated risks and costs.
It is our responsibility as citizens in the
healthcare ecosystem to advance the
use of all of our organizations’ information assets.

The articles in this month’s issue give
the latest thinking on IG and other topics
that are keeping HIM professionals busy
in early 2018. Mary Butler’s “IG Pulse
Check” gives further insight into the IG
survey results and describes what AHIMA members can expect in terms of IG
offerings in 2018. The piece also examines an industry-leading IG adopter.

Also this year, the industry will be
in the midst of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Quality
Payment Program (QPP) “Year 2,” the
second phase of the Medicare Access
and CHIP Reauthorization Act (
MACRA) transition. In “MACRA Strategies
for 2018 and 2019,” Michael Marron-Stearns discusses key components of
the QPP, with an emphasis on changes
to the policy for 2018 and, as possible,
2019.

Finally, wearing multiple hats andmanaging multiple new initiatives hasmade impromptu project managers ofmany of us. A panel of HIM profession-als convened by author Angela Rosediscusses how to map out projects,meet milestones, and resolve commonchallenges. Read their advice in “Us-ing HIM Skills to Lead Enterprise-WideProjects: An Expert Roundtable.”There is not just one way to implementIG; the sky really is the limit. You willcustomize the approach based on yourskill set, your organization’s strategy,and your areas of influence. But now isthe time to get started on the road togovernance. ¢